# best martial arts for girls? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2001, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-martial-arts-for-girls/93112 "2001-11-13T14:01:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2001, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-martial-arts-for-girls/93112/41 "2001-11-19T15:13:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anal Scurvy \* > \*\*Um… try taking an average woman against an average man. That’s like saying, “Okay, in one corner is this amazon who ate a brick this morning and in the other corner is Kevin, the assistant librarian who doesn’t leave his house much.” > > In hard arts, gender is vitally important. In soft arts, gender is neutralized nicely by aggression. \*\* I made up the amazon/librarian scenario to refute another poster’s blanket statement that a man would beat a woman four out of five times. I think this is wrong because it’s using irrelevant distinctions, and I don’t think my scenario is all that far-fetched. Gender has absolutely no bearing on performance in single combat. Other factors such as size, weight and strength may be factors, and, because these loosely correlate with gender, people make poor generalizations about gender. My point is that making the gender assumptions is misleading because gender itself is not an issue. While size/weight/strength do correlate with gender, the averages for males and females are relatively close and the standard deviations are high enough that making broad generalizations is pointless. I could probably dig up stats that said brunettes were more effective in combat that redheads, but regardless of the stats, hair color is not a relevant factor. Something else is hidden in those stats and to cite hair color as the determining factor is just wrong. It’s the old “correlation is not causation” logical error that is accepted in this case because it’s cited so often. The OP certainly has a fair question, but I think it’s ill-posed because it assumes that gender is relevant. We can all infer what she means and answer the question assuming that she is a girl of average height/weight/strength, but the answer we give might be different if she said she was of average height/weight but very strong, or average height/strength but relatively heavy. In addition, the answer we give for the average girl would apply equally well to a man who had the same height/weight/strength and would apply not at all to a woman who was a couple of sigma from the norm. ---
**Author:** ![Anal\_Scurvy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anal\_Scurvy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anal_Scurvy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-martial-arts-for-girls/93112/42 "2001-11-21T00:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yondan \* > **A judo/ju jitsu contest couldn’t be a game, really. And it would result in broken bones at least, as you say. This would be a bad thing, I think. As to who would come out the victor, I really wouldn’t venture to say. There are too many possibilities. Both have terrifically damaging techniques at their disposal. That’s like asking which of two tigers will win? A: the one that gets to the throat first. But the odds are the victor is going to pay a very heavy toll.** I’d have to disagree here. My experience suggests that a judoka is at a considerable disadvantage to any grappler who has studied wrist/knee/ankle/etc. locks. It’s like a boxer being unfamiliar with kicks, at least in my estimation, wherein he’d be at a distinct disadvantage when fighting a kickboxer. The judoka, or boxer, will have to work that much harder and concentrate much more to make up for their unfamiliarity. > [@](#): > > \*\* > Further, I would say that ju jitsu **should not** be modified for competition: this would be a serious detriment to its real utility.\*\* That’s refreshing to hear. Too often you hear dogmatic responses when people talk about other arts. A judo club we visited to spar/practise with introduced me to the concept of a several degree black belt judo instructor who would pull a former jujitsu student (me) aside and demean jujitsu for five minutes. Eventually I just got fed up and returned to practise, no longer concerned about whether I was showing him disrespect or not. > [@](#): > > \*\* > But that’s a whole 'nother conversation. For now, I wonder if you might share why you have decided to take up judo, and what you find most interesting/useful/satisfying about it. \*\* At first I joined for convenience. It’s being taught at the university I’m attending and is incredibly cheap. My plan was to join until I could locate a permanent school, preferably something teaching grappling and Muay Thai. The simple reason why I stayed? I love the instructor. Her attitude is so amazing. She was the continental African judo champion and was only kept out of the Olympics by a broken arm and, the second time, by pregnancy. She’s always screaming for us to work harder, but to work harder for ourselves and to overcome our fears. It’s such a relief from instructors who berate you constantly and tell you that you are working for the glory of the school. ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-martial-arts-for-girls/93112/43 "2001-11-21T04:01:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anal Scurvy \* > **I’d have to disagree here. My experience suggests that a judoka is at a considerable disadvantage to any grappler who has studied wrist/knee/ankle/etc. locks. It’s like a boxer being unfamiliar with kicks, at least in my estimation, wherein he’d be at a distinct disadvantage when fighting a kickboxer. The judoka, or boxer, will have to work that much harder and concentrate much more to make up for their unfamiliarity.** Hmmm. Well, my experience supports rather a different view. Having sparred with jujitsu players, I have not found myself to be at such a disadvantage, but perhaps this is due to the “equivalent competence” concept discussed above. Or it could be that the techniques I brought to the contest that were unfamiliar to the jujitsu players were sufficient to disrupt _their_ concentration. And I know a bit of jujitsu myself. Of course, these were very friendly bouts, and it was understood that no one would get thrown on their heads, and no one would dislocate anything deliberately. I still like my tiger image, though. 😃 Well, I’m glad you are enjoying yourself, and I wish you every success. Your instructor sounds like a great blessing. Who knows? Perhaps we will get a chance to meet IRL some day and play a bit! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-martial-arts-for-girls/93112.md?page=2)